As is well known, a relatively new technique for the packaging of hay and straw has recently become increasingly adopted on a wide scale in agriculture. This technique involves the use of suitable rotary presses for forming, on the spot, big cylindrical bales in dimensions usually of 120-150 cm in depth and 150-180 cm in diameter and weighing 600-800 kg.
The use of such a system is advantageous both from the point of view of the quality of the harvested product, which is not damaged as in the case of presses having a horizontal piston for the formation of parallelopiped bales and, above all, from the operative point of view, since only one operator is required to package, load on the spot, transport and stack the resultant bales in the area of stowage.
However, serious difficulties have occurred in the utilisation of the product baled in this manner, in view of the fact that the dimensions and the weights of the cylindrical bales certainly do not permit smooth manual intervention for the distribution and proportioning of the hay and straw in the places of use.
The technique employed currently offers devices which only partially fulfill the above-mentioned requirements. In the majority of cases, in fact, the cylindrical bale is unwound manually by simply rolling it on the ground, the stacked layers being distributed manually with the use of hay-forks.
In some cases the cylindrical bale is cut into strips by means of a power saw provided with a special blade. This involves the disadvantage, however, of very hard work in the cutting operation itself, whilst the following operation of distribution must always be carried out manually.
Mechanical devices are also in use which are to be attached to the rear of a tractor, the devices being operable to engage the cylindrical bale in the centers of its two base surfaces and, to drag it, and unwind it on the ground. With such a system, however, the quantity of hay or straw which is unwound is uncertain, and manual intervention by the operator is always necessary in order to distribute and apportion the amount harvested.